Curry Goes One-On-One With Fauci About Coronavirus

The NBA remains on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic so, like many Bay Area residents, Warriors point guard Steph Curry is sheltering at home with his family.

On Thursday morning Curry used some of that free time to host a 30-minute Instagram live Q&A with White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Curry and Fauci said they hoped to use the basketball star’s reach to educate younger people about the seriousness of the outbreak and clear up confusion around the virus which has transformed American life in a matter of weeks.

More than 50,000 people tuned in to watch the Q&A live, including former President Barack Obama, Curry’s former teammate Andre Igoudala and pop star Justin Bieber.

Curry fielded questions from viewers on social media such as, will the virus recede in warmer months?

“With other viruses like seasonal influenza that we get confronted with every year and other coronaviruses that are more benign, that is true,” said Fauci, who added that it is not yet clear if that holds true for the novel coronavirus.

When asked how long it will take for people who are infected to recover and safely leave their homes, Fauci said under normal procedures the patient would have to have two negative test results in 24 hours. However, because of the current constraints on testing capability, officials will have to establish another standard that has not yet been decided.

Fauci also said that while it is too early to say with certainty, it is overwhelmingly likely that once someone contracts the virus they will develop an immunity and not be able to contract it a second time.

Fauci also sought to overcome the misperception that health officials are overreacting or overstating the seriousness of the pandemic.

“I’d like to get the people in the country to realize that we are dealing with a serious problem. It’s something that we’ve modified our lives. It’s not convenient to lock yourself in. It’s not convenient for you [Curry> not to play basketball," said Fauci. "But we’re going through a period of time now where we’ve got to, as a country, pull together, don’t get frightened, don’t get intimidated, use the energy to be able to confront it and do the kind of things that’ll put an end to it.”

And by that, he means social distancing and complying with local shelter-in-place or lockdown orders.

“We can start thinking about getting back to some degree of normality when the country as a whole has turned a corner,” he said.